(a.d. 1187). It now underwent the usual unhappy casualties of the seat of war. It was 
reconquered by the Christians only to he again lost to the Moslem, and possessed by the 
Moslem only to he again assaulted by the Knights who still wandered over the sacred soil. 
Yet, by a singular exception to the emporiums of the East, a remnant of population clung 
to its ruins, until it resumed the shape of a City again. At length, in the seventeenth 
century, it rose into sudden distinction, under the famous Emir of the Druses, Fakhr-ed- 
Din. The Emir adorned it with stately public buildings, his policy attracted merchants 
from Europe, and his power protected the industry and intelligence of the people. After 
his ruin, its commerce was chiefly with France. It exported cotton and silk, and was the 
chief mart of the rich silk manufactures of Damascus. 1 But Djezzar Pasha drove out the 
French, and the trade declining once more, was carried on by the natives alone. Beyrout 
has since become the port of Damascus, and unless some new change of masters shall 
change its fortunes, Sidon is likely to perish by natural decay. 
1 Volney, Voyage en Syrie, ii. 192. 
SIDON, FROM THE NORTH. 
The site of the City was admirably chosen at once for commerce, strength, and beauty. 
Standing on a bold projection of the land, which sufficiently separated it from the level 
country of the interior, and which was probably fortified, it was safe from casual insult, 
while it enjoyed the fertility of plains even now remarkable for their richness. The 
approach to Sidon is through plantations of mulberry-trees, cultivated for the food of the 
silkworm, and through groves and gardens of the vine, the pomegranate, the orange, and 
the fig-tree; those are in such abundance and excellence as to have nearly superseded the 
olive, that favourite production of Syria. 
The lover of nature in the East is continually liable to impediments arising from 
the absurdity of the people. The Artist and his party were placed under a guard, in a 
species of quarantine; but his admiration of the scene induced him to encounter all 
difficulties, and transfer the landscape to his portfolio. Sidon struck him as superior to 
the generality of the coast towns; the houses solid and spacious, and the people well 
dressed. But the antiquities were few, and apparently limited to some granite columns 
lying in the road, and vestiges of tessellated pavements. 1 
The small building in the foreground is called the Tomb of Zebulon, and is held 
in great veneration alike by Moslems and Christians. 
Roberts’s Journal. 
